Mark Pope confident with current roster, but 'could have a little bit of movement'

Mark Pope said back in late April he was ‘scouring the planet’ for new Kentucky roster additions following Travis Perry‘s departure — assuming you could pencil in Otega Oweh‘s return, giving the Wildcats a total of 12 scholarship pieces.

“I have 12 guys that will help us, and we’re actually going to try and round out this roster,” Pope told Jon Rothstein at the time. “I’m actually scouring the planet right now for guys that would fit in as maybe a redshirt guy that would kill it in practice or be a last year of your career guy that wants to come here and put on this one-of-one jersey and be a part of this. … We need to add a couple more pieces.”

Then the Wildcats added Miami (OH) transfer Reece Potter, “a Lexington Catholic legend,” as Pope described it, to open the month of May.

“He is a lengthy big who has a unique combination of mobility and skill,” he said. “Reece can really pass, shoot and protect the rim and fits into what we do exceptionally well. Most importantly, he truly understands what it means to wear the Kentucky jersey.”

There’s one, pushing that number to 13 scholarship pieces going into 2025-26. Where do things stand today as the portal dust settles and we turn our attention toward summer workouts in June?

Movement is on the table — but nothing set in stone or totally necessary in terms of day-one impact guys. He’s confident the group he’s currently assembled is capable of making a run, but you can never add too much depth or guys who can become players down the road.

“I love our roster right now. We’ll see,” Pope told KSR on Tuesday. “We could have a little bit of movement there, but I think we’re in a pretty good spot.”

One caveat to that plan: the House settlement and impending clarity regarding roster limits. As of today, the 13-person scholarship limit remains, meaning new additions are not possible unless Oweh (unlikely) or Jaland Lowe (highly unlikely) keep their names in the draft — at least until the settlement is finalized. When that is lifted, the latest proposal for men’s basketball is 15 roster spots with players who had their positions cut also eligible for reinstatement, grandfathered in from the year before. That could open the door for the likes of walk-ons Walker Horn, Grant Darbyshire and Zach Tow to return using their additional seasons of eligibility if they’d like — Horn and Darbyshire are currently in the portal — while also leaving two more scholarship spots to be used however Pope wants.

Until that passes, though, there isn’t much for Pope to say.

“There’s — can’t talk about that too much, but we’ll see,” he continued.

He did, however, address the House settlement and how Kentucky has navigated the roster-building process this offseason, noting ‘it’s fun’ to work through the chaos with rule changes on the horizon.

“Well, you just don’t know what the rules are exactly,” Pope said. “That’s kind of fun because, right, you don’t know what the rules are. There’s been so much chaos that we’re kind of getting more accustomed to living in the chaos. It’s just War Games. You just plan out every possible contingency plan and think it through the best you can, and then make a decision and run with it. It’s fun.”

More fun to be had, it seems.